17 June 2017

Animals dug this burrow

Big ones, obviously. Probably (extinct) giant sloths.

Across northern South America, there are hundreds of colossal tunnels large enough for humans to walk through... Geologists call these tunnels “paleoburrow,” and they are believed to
have been dug by an extinct species of giant ground sloth... The largest [paleoburrow] measured 2,000 feet long, six feet tall and three to
five feet wide. An estimated 4,000 metric tons of dirt and rock were dug
out of the hillside to create the burrow. It was evidently the work of
not one or two individuals but several generations.

“There’s no geological process in the world that produces long tunnels
with a circular or elliptical cross-section, which branch and rise and
fall, with claw marks on the walls,” says Frank. “I’ve [also] seen
dozens of caves that have inorganic origins, and in these cases, it’s
very clear that digging animals had no role in their creation.”

Frank believes the biggest burrows – measuring up to five feet in
diameter – were dug by ground sloths. He and his colleagues consider as
possibilities several genera that once lived in South America and whose
fossil remains suggest adaptation for serious digging: Catonyx, Glossotherium and the massive, several-ton Lestodon. Others believe that extinct armadillos such as Pampatherium, Holmesina or Propraopus, though smaller than the sloths, were responsible for even the largest burrows.

4 comments:

Lots of animal experts don't believe this scenario.On the other hand they could have been dug by humans using the surplus feet of their sloth sunday roast which none of the above mentioned experts seem to have considered.

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